No Press Pass
April 15, 2011 1:59 PM   Subscribe

At least nine foreign and six Libyan jouranlists are missing in Libya. Three of the Western journalists were spotted in a detention camp in Tripoli.Two others are still missing and unaccounted for, South African Anton Lazarus Hammerl and American freelancer Matthew VanDyke. The Committee to Protect Journalists has documented over 80 attacks on the press in the last month. With Qaddafi forces firing cluster bombs in civilian areas, one wonders how we can expect these journalists to be returned safely home. Perhaps Turkey can intercede? There is a facebook campaign for at least one of the journalists. Of course, this problem is worldwide.
posted by cal71 (10 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
Remember the Lusitania. Firght the hun. We must make the world safe for arab democracy. Though advised to avoid foreign entanglements we must send the Marines to the shores of Trippoli.
posted by humanfont at 2:46 PM on April 15, 2011


Journalist Clare Gillis was one of my favorite people in my high school class. I hope she gets back OK.
posted by jtron at 3:17 PM on April 15, 2011 [1 favorite]


Facebook campaigns aren't the answer. Gaddafi and his henchmen are brutal thugs and the sooner he's overthrown the better.
posted by joannemullen at 3:59 PM on April 15, 2011 [1 favorite]


I have no fucking idea how the world should handle Gaddafi, but those journalists are heroes.
posted by angrycat at 4:42 PM on April 15, 2011


and thanks for the post
posted by angrycat at 4:42 PM on April 15, 2011


I am amazed at the madness of the responses we are getting from Obama and any number of other places. We will not be active after initially sending in planes. We pull out but on the sly
are still flying our planes. We will not use ground forces but we equip, train, send in CIA etc--(we meaning our allies along with us)...
We want their leader out but we will not send in forces to get him out but we will put on pressure (words) to get him to leave.

What a friggin feeble and mixed response. Gaddafi is not going to leave so long as he has an
army that has not yet been stopped or fully beaten. Accept that and then decide what is to be done. Or not done.
posted by Postroad at 5:17 PM on April 15, 2011


Thank God for Qatar: Libyan Rebels Say They’re Being Sent Weapons
The rebel military leader, Gen. Abdel Fattah Younes, on Saturday said in an interview with Al Arabiya, a satellite news channel, that his forces had already received weapons supplies from unnamed nations that support their uprising.

A spokesman for the rebels’ National Transitional Council, Mustafa Gheriani, confirmed General Younes’s statement but also refused to provide details.

Asked whether any arms shipments had arrived yet, a spokesman for the rebel military, Col. Ahmed Bani, smiled broadly, but then insisted, “I didn’t quite confirm it.”

On April 14, however, the emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, told CNN that his country would provide weapons to the rebels and that deliveries of antitank weapons may already have reached them. Qatar, along with Italy and France, has already recognized the rebels as the legitimate government of Libya.
...

On Saturday, Mr. Gheriani said the rebels have opened “professional training centers.” Asked if that meant that foreign advisers or trainers were present, he declined to reply but winked broadly, twice. “We have a lot of people being trained, real professional training, that we don’t talk to the world about,” he said.

Such training, he added, is in addition to a Libyan-run training camp for rebel volunteers to get basic instruction before heading to the front line, which is now about 100 miles south of here, outside of Ajdabiya.

On Saturday that volunteer training camp was closed to journalists, although previously it had been open. A machinegun emplacement guarding the main entrance was abandoned, although the machine gun and live ammunition was left in place there, unattended.
posted by metaplectic at 8:28 AM on April 16, 2011


The Guardian: With Tripoli's rebel underground
Now, the contact said, they were turning to guerrilla actions. They have attacked checkpoints across the city, killing the pro-Gaddafi militia and stealing their guns. The shooting that crackles across the city after dark, which regime officials claim is celebratory gunfire, is the work of the underground rebels, he said. "They [the regime] are covering up ... Every night there are attacks. The boys [on the checkpoints] have got scared. They are only getting 40 dinars (£20) a night, and they are saying we don't want to do this dirty work any more." There have been fewer checkpoints since the attacks began, he claimed.
Note this is in Tripoli.
posted by metaplectic at 8:38 AM on April 16, 2011


Related: Tim Hetherington (Oscar nominated for Restrepo) has been reported killed while covering the fighting in Misrata, Libya today.
posted by blaneyphoto at 9:24 AM on April 20, 2011


Meant to include this as well - http://www.businessinsider.com/tim-hetherington-oscar-libya-restrepo-2011-4
posted by blaneyphoto at 9:25 AM on April 20, 2011


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